Dom Perignon

According to "The Little Blue Book" (www.littlebooks.org) Pierre Perignon was born in France in 1639. He took the vows of a Benedictine monk at an abbey that produced a variety of wines.

Pierre soon became an expert on wine. Maybe because he was blind he used his extraordinary sense of smell and taste to tell which grapes came from which vineyards. He worked with mixing wines so that the qualities of each added to the qualities of the others. In particular, he studied the grapes from a region of Champagne. When he was 60 years old, he succeeded in producing what we now call "champagne".

Years after Pierre died, the wine company that bought the monastery vineyards gave the name "Dom Perignon" to its finest vintage. On New Year's Eve, many will without realizing it, celebrate the memory of this monk and wine expert.

*"Dom" was a title sometimes given to monks and other religious leaders.